For conventional financing, Amerisave is hard to beat, but their closing really sucks and they push you to use their own settlement company, which is questionably legal with respect to RESPA.

I'm going into settlement in a month for a new home we will be living in.

A double closing or simultaneous, as we use d them, is where the middle man acts as a buyer with the selling owner at a settlement, then the middle man acts as a seller to the end buyer, there is no assignment of a contract as deeds are conveyed to the middle man and immediately the middle man deeds to the buyer, it all happens during one settlement.The issue with these arrangements is now that the middle man has no money, the funds used were from the real buyer and pass through to the seller, that means that the middle man didn't give the consideration of his purchase price and technically didn't purchase. 

I believe it is important to find what the seller's base price is, and the balance of her mortgage (s) and other liens on the property and how fast she wants to get to the settlement table.

Practice controlling real estate with a skinny contract subject to assignment.So if you control a property (using all the right clauses) for $100,000 and you find an assignee for your offer at $130,000; you make $30,000 without going to settlement, without a loan, without a hard money lender, without settlement cost.

If title work clears, we go to settlement on that property.

You can always just sue on the note and/or offer a $4k settlement on $92k. 

You can literally ask to have your name put on the HUD and oila, you're paid and 1099'd by the settlement company (or attorney). 

What you are going to do before settlement, 4.

What is unused from the estimated deposit is usually given back as a credit on the closing settlement statement from the title company.